Quebec puts accent on linguistic correctness

Montreal – How prickly has the language issue become for business in Quebec?

Quebecor Inc., a media company that spends millions every year to promote French-speaking artists and content-creators, is considering putting an acute accent in its name. It’s been in business for 47 years with the same alias.

“Quebecor Inc. and its subsidiary Quebecor Média Inc. have taken steps a few weeks ago leading to a recommendation to their respective board of directors and shareholders to consider the addition of a French version of the name Quebecor by adding an acute accent on the first ‘e’ in ‘Quebecor,’” company vice-president Serge Sasseville said in an email. “It is pretty simple. The French version will the acute accent will be used in Quebec and the English version without the acute accent will be used in the rest of Canada.”

Why does management feel the need to make the change? Mr. Sasseville did not respond to that question. But it is telling that amid Quebec’s recent anti-English language storm, the company is taking an obvious step to remain above reproach. Even Quebecor wants to make sure it is Québécois enough.

For the better part of three months, Quebec media have been saturated with condemnation of the creeping presence of English in Montreal. It began with the revelation that certain employees at the real estate arm of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec were required to work in English because their bosses’ French skills were lacking, contravening their legal rights. National Bank then came under fire, followed by Bombardier Inc. Finally, the owners of the Montreal Canadiens, a group headed by brewing scion Geoff Molson, were dressed down for their decision to hire a unilingual anglophone as interim head coach.

French Quebec is currently caught up in a mini-existential crisis, one driven as much by demographic shifts on the island of Montreal as by the globalization of business. Francophones are having fewer children and moving to off-island suburbs as the proportion of allophones – whose mother tongue is neither French nor English – is growing. Meanwhile, Quebec companies of all sizes are running head on into the challenges of finding the best people to push their business internationally while maintaining the primacy of French at home. And multinationals from elsewhere are bringing their business to Quebecers.

Metro Inc. management spent an inordinate amount of time at the company’s annual meeting this week fending off a demand from shareholder rights activist Yves Michaud that it add an accent to its moniker as well. Their response: No. Metro is a trademark. It’s not French and it’s not English. It’s not a real word and it doesn’t need to be changed.

A more pertinent question might be how the Quebec grocer plans to grow profits in the future without a major acquisition. But that doesn’t generate as many headlines in the Montreal media as a good language fight does.

“It was not a surprise to us” that Mr. Michaud launched his attack on Metro, company spokesperson Marie-Claude Bacon said Thursday. “There is a context actually at this point in Quebec… that probably gives him more echo in the media than in the past.”

Quebec’s language watchdog, l’Office québécois de la language francaise (OQLF) is in the midst of a campaign targeting the commercial signs of multinational chains and big box stores operating in the province in a bid to protect French.

“There’s more an more” usage of unilingual English in commercial signage in Quebec, said Office spokesperson Martin Bergeron. “But we’re flexible in applying the law. We’re trying to work with companies to obtain voluntary correction.”

Under the law, English names are allowed but they must be accompanied by a slogan or a descriptive expression in French explaining what the company does.

Some companies based outside Quebec, like Edmonton’s Running Room, have opted to switch their names to French versions to better fit in. Others have kept their English names but added a French descriptor, like Les Cafés Second Cup.

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